Ferrer is ALL pure strategy. He doesn't have weapons. Wears guys down till he forces and error or gets that forehand either crosscourt or up the line for a winner.

Ever thought of taking a USPTA class? Might need that education the last poster told you about.

NO ONE at #4 just gets by on someone else's racket time and time again. He'd get plastered by anyone outside the top 100 time after time if that was the case.

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He has a heavy forehand(especially on clay where the spin component is more enhanced)....and knows what to do with it. His Backhand is solid. He can place his serve well and maximizes the pace he can have with his body and height. He has well times drop shots....can run down anything.

He can redirect powerful shots, hits great angles and has huge mental toughness against everyone outside Federer and Djokovic.

It was actually in 2nd or 3rd game of the first set. IIRC, Nadal was sprinting forward to chase down a drop shot. As he was slowing down from his sprint, he started looking at his box and talking about something.

Then he took a medical timeout and a bit later, they recorded him talking to Toni where he said something along the lines of "I've got torn ligaments for sure!". Then he said that he is in the QF of the AO and would never retire... which is kinda funny I thought because the year before he retired in the QF.

It was actually in 2nd or 3rd game of the first set. IIRC, Nadal was sprinting forward to chase down a drop shot. As he was slowing down from his sprint, he started looking at his box and talking about something.

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That is correct, as far as the original version is concerned.

However, my question was refering to two things:

1) the fact that, during the match Ferrer was painting the lines. The entire match, starting from game 1 till the end.

2) even at the end of the match Nadal was able to play pretty spectacular points. Watch the point at 4-1 30-30 in the third. If you think, that such play is possible with the quoted injury, then you probably as well believe, that capricorns exist.

1) the fact that, during the match Ferrer was painting the lines. The entire match, starting from game 1 till the end.

2) even at the end of the match Nadal was able to play pretty spectacular points. Watch the point at 4-1 30-30 in the third. If you think, that such play is possible with the quoted injury, then you probably as well believe, that capricorns exist.

Mind you, Nadal was playing against a top 5 player, and not some mug.

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Nadal injured himself in a very long game at the beginning of the match.

Here it is straight from the horse's mouth during the match while talking to his box:

He says he tore something but and when someone in his box probably infers that he should retire he flat out refuses(probably because he retired in AO 2010 as well). Ferrer is the last guy you want to face while having mobility problems.

Why do you think Nadal is talking to his team at 2-1 in the first set about his physical problems? Because they are nothing to worry about at that point?

In the first set he goes off court with the trainer at 2-1 and at 4-1 again, both times before Nadal's own serve.

Go to 2:52 of this vid and tell me that this is the face of a guy that doesn't really have a physical problem at the time(again, this is at 2-1 in the first set, why would Nadal get disheartened this early on if it isn't something serious?)http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g07Xu5ZkDWo

Even his opponent recognized that Nadal was injured for most of this match.

1) the fact that, during the match Ferrer was painting the lines. The entire match, starting from game 1 till the end.

2) even at the end of the match Nadal was able to play pretty spectacular points. Watch the point at 4-1 30-30 in the third. If you think, that such play is possible with the quoted injury, then you probably as well believe, that capricorns exist.

Mind you, Nadal was playing against a top 5 player, and not some mug.

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Oh, I agree. Ferrer was playing great tennis at the 2011 Australian Open. Nadal was not in for an easy night even if he had been in full form. IMO, Ferrer's performance at the 2011 AO might be his best GS performance ever. Check out the first 2 sets of his match against Murray in the SF...just inspired tennis from Ferrer. With that said, I must insist that Nadal was not at his best in that match.. I watched that entire match and even as someone who was very anti-Nadal at that time (I didn't want Nadal to get 4 in a row), I could tell that Nadal was struggling. As a matter of fact, if you think that Nadal was playing even remotely close to his top level, then you probably also believe in supernatural creatures.

Clumsy movement to the forehand side, desperate down-the-middle net approaches, landing awkwardly after making returns, low percentage winner attempts with his backhand, giving up on chase-able shots.....Yeah, Nadal was a mess in that match.

Oh, I agree. Ferrer was playing great tennis at the 2011 Australian Open. Nadal was not in for an easy night even if he had been in full form. IMO, Ferrer's performance at the 2011 AO might be his best GS performance ever. Check out the first 2 sets of his match against Murray in the SF...just inspired tennis from Ferrer. With that said, I must insist that Nadal was not at his best in that match.. I watched that entire match and even as someone who was very anti-Nadal at that time (I didn't want Nadal to get 4 in a row), I could tell that Nadal was struggling. As a matter of fact, if you think that Nadal was playing even remotely close to his top level, then you probably also believe in supernatural creatures.

Clumsy movement to the forehand side, desperate down-the-middle net approaches, landing awkwardly after making returns, low percentage winner attempts with his backhand, giving up on chase-able shots.....Yeah, Nadal was a mess in that match.

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No, I don't think that.

I think, that it was a combination of Nadal, playing himself into form for the final rounds of the tournament, Ferrer's absolutely insane level in this match and maybe some minor ailments, that are typical for pro players, that were troubling Nadal. However, that is far from what Team Nadal tried to feed us with.

I think, that it was a combination of Nadal, playing himself into form for the final rounds of the tournament, Ferrer's absolutely insane level in this match and maybe some minor ailments, that are typical for pro players, that were troubling Nadal. However, that is far from what Team Nadal tried to feed us with.

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Yes, of course. Nadal obviously didn't have any serious ligament or muscle tear. He was back on court playing intense matches with Djokovic just 2 months later. However, that injury did hamper Nadal's movement enough to cripple his game. Without his movement being sharp, Nadal was very vulnerable playing against a guy like Ferrer on one of the slowest HCs on tour.

I've cued http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HN16WPJ2k7U#t=3m43s because it shows Rafa, only three games into this match, moonballing his unusually non-submissive pigeon. It's not as if Rafa by then had tried everything else and so he finally had to resort to moonballing; no, that couldn't have been the case because they were only three games in. Here is many believe the most electrifying player of all time, playing men's singles like a seventy year-old female doubles partner.

Except for their very first encounter, the only (very limited) success Ferrer has had vs Rafa was on hard court: 3 wins: at AO, USO and WTF. The only other player to have beaten Rafa at those 3 events is Djokovic.